Meet the 5 best mayors in Detroit history

Jul. 25, 2014

Hazen S. Pingree

Written by

Detroit Free Press staff writer

Frank Murphy

John C. Lodge

Coleman Young

James Couzens

James Couzens

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Detroit honors some of its best with monuments and courthouses. We honor one of the worst with a convention center. Detroit has had 75 mayors in its 313-year history, and like the city itself, there’s plenty of good — and plenty of bad.

Two of our mayors are considered among the 10 best that the United States has ever seen. Yet, coming up with three others to round out a top five is more challenging — and certainly more controversial — than you’d think.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the city’s half century of decline and unprecedented number of challenges, coming up with five crummy mayors is a heck of a lot easier.

Here is a look at five of the greatest leaders who led the Motor City. Come back tomorrow for a look at the five worst.

1. Hazen S. Pingree

Mayor from 1890 to March 22, 1897

They don’t call him “the Idol of the People” for nuthin’.

The greatest mayor in Detroit history came from humble beginnings. The Maine native fought for the Union in the Civil War, and was a POW at the Confederate prison at Andersonville. After the war, Pingree packed up and moved to Detroit, where he became a shoemaker. A good one. A wealthy one. When he took office, Detroit was a much different place. It was the pre-motor Motor City, and home to only 206,000 souls.

Despite been well-heeled, Pingree was a man of the people. When it came to social reform in the 1890s, Pingree had few, if any, equals. His brand of leadership was ahead of its time and the wave of social reforms that came to dominate the Progressive Era ahead of the Roaring Twenties. As mayor, Pingree took on all comers: the phone companies, the gas and light utilities, political-party bosses, the city's privately owned streetcar companies. The privately run streetlights? He took them over, too, forming the Public Lighting Commission and putting them under public control. And he did all of this while slashing taxes to keep money in the common man’s pockets.

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Yet it is this Republican's work for the poor that stands out most. During the Panic of 1893, with his city starving, Pingree took unused land and grew vegetables for the hungry. This earned him not only the adoration of Detroiters, but the nickname “Potato Patch Pingree.” He also established work-relief programs during this time.

It is no surprise that Pingree was easily elected governor in 1896. But Ol’ Ping didn't want to give up his old gig, and tried to be both governor and mayor of Detroit at the same time. When the courts ruled the following year that he couldn’t be greedy, he kept the job in Lansing, where he served until Jan. 1, 1901.

Five months into his retirement, while on a safari in Africa, Pingree contracted an illness and died June 18, 1901. He was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit.

The day after his death, the Detroit News eulogized Pingree saying, “Other men had opinions. He had convictions … He was the type of man behind whom half of medieval Europe might have marched.” The Free Press recalled him in November 1941 saying, “If he had lived, he might have been president for by (the time of his death) he was a national figure.”

Calls for a statue in his honor soon followed his passing. Much of the money for the bronze monument came from the hungry he had fed with his potato patches. In all, more than 5,000 people donated to the fund, most averaging donations of 25 cents to a dollar. The statue was unveiled in Grand Circus Park on May 30, 1904.

But don't take our word on his greatness: Pingree was named the fourth-best mayor in U.S. history by a poll of scholars published in "The American Mayor" by Melvin Holli (Penn State University Press, 1999).

"His role as an advanced social reformer was unmatched by any big-city mayor in the last half of the 19th Century," Holli wrote. He "was one of the most important pre-Progressive reform mayors and made a national reputation for himself supporting a novel work-relief program for the poor and fighting for municipal ownership and for low utility and tax rates for the urban masses."

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2. Frank Murphy

Mayor from Sept. 23, 1930, to May 10, 1933

When it comes to résumés, they don't get much better than Frank Murphy's. Talk about your rising stars.

In the 1920s, Murphy was a mere Recorder's Court judge. He presided over the famous Ossian Sweet trial; Sweet was an African-American homeowner tried for murder for shooting at a mob of white Detroiters angry that Sweet had moved into their neighborhood. In an important civil rights case, Sweet and his family were acquitted by an all-white jury.

By 1930, Murphy was mayor of Detroit, the nation's fourth-largest city, after defeating the disgraced and recalled Mayor Charles Bowles (more on him in our list of worst mayors). And Murphy couldn’t have come at a better time. He would go on to keep the city's head above water during the Depression. He would then become governor-general of the Philippines, governor of Michigan from 1937 to 1939, and then served as U.S. attorney general in 1940-41. "Then, in a truly awesome and breathless leap into the political Valhalla that few mayors even dream about," Holli wrote in "The American Mayor," Murphy was made a U.S. Supreme Court justice by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Detroiter would stay on the bench until his death, in 1949.

The Democrat was "a New Dealer before there was a New Deal," biographer Sidney Fine wrote. Even though the Depression left Detroit in dire straits during Murphy's entire time in City Hall, he shepherded the city through it. Murphy took a page out of his predecessor Pingree's playbook and sponsored vegetable gardens to feed the hungry. He ramped up the city's welfare agencies and pressured the gas and electric utilities and telephone companies to lower their rates for the city’s struggling residents. Murphy also helped form the U.S. Conference of Mayors to lobby Washington for aid to cities. To save money, he cut city employees' pay 50% and even replaced burned-out lightbulbs with lower-wattage numbers to cut costs. And if he wasn’t busy enough, he also took on the ever-daunting task of trying to balance the city's books.

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Fine wrote that Murphy was "the right mayor for the times and ... saw Detroit through its darkest night. That he was one of Detroit's great mayors is easy to defend."

The lifelong bachelor died July 19, 1949, and was buried in Our Lady of Lake Huron Cemetery in Harbor Beach, Mich. The Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in downtown Detroit is named in his honor.

He was named the seventh-best mayor in U.S. history in the same poll of scholars.

"Murphy deserves wider recognition, especially because his post-mayoral career of upward movement is remarkable and striking for a mayor," Holli wrote. "Few big-city mayors have experienced such dramatic and visible upward political mobility. Even for the best of them, the mayor's chair is generally a terminal office."

Yep, ol' Murph was just that good.

3. John C. Lodge

Mayor from Dec. 5, 1922, to April 9, 1923, then again from Aug. 2, 1924, to Nov. 21, 1924, and from Jan. 10, 1928, to Jan. 4, 1930.

Even if you’ve never heard of the man, you know the name — you’ve no doubt spent hours sitting in the freeway named in his honor.

John Christian Lodge was a blue blood in Detroit's political history and the backbone of city government for decades. He devoted half a century of his life to serving the public and spent his entire 87 years in the city.

Lodge worked as a reporter and editor at the Free Press before leaving in 1896 after getting a taste of the political bug. He entered public service as chief clerk to the Wayne County Board of Auditors, before being elected to the state House in 1907. While he was in the Legislature, the Republican was elected a city alderman, a post he would hold from 1908 until 1918, when the former 42-man body was abolished and replaced by the current system used today. Lodge was the first president of the nine-member council system.

The cigar-loving Lodge would become one of the most popular — and longest-serving — members of the Common Council. He served in various capacities in politics for 50 years and was long considered the elder statesman of Detroit. The Free Press wrote how "his very appearance seemed to stimulate a smoother operation of the legislative wheels and pistons."

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He also was known for his encyclopedic knowledge, even into his 80s. "Whenever a city editor wants to check on a story about old Detroit, even dating back 70 years, he usually sends a reporter over to the City Hall to see John Christian Lodge," the Free Press wrote in 1940. "He can rattle off dates and details of city events and the men who figured in them with amazing accuracy. The only time his photographic memory blurs is when asked whether it was Aug. 12 in 1861 or 1862 that he was born."

His first two trips to the mayor’s office were as acting mayor. As council president, he took over for James Couzens — who was appointed to the U.S. Senate — in 1922, and for Joseph A. Martin, who resigned in 1924.

Detroit was most certainly a city of the Roaring Twenties, and no political figure played so prominent a role in guiding its destiny during that time than Lodge. He oversaw Detroit transforming from a Podunk little town to an industrial powerhouse. In an era when the country was going gangbusters, Lodge urged a slow and steady approach and strongly opposed radical changes in government. Keep in mind, he was a living link between the horse-and-buggy Detroit and the hustle-and-bustle Motor City. In 1868, he watched the laying of the cornerstone of Detroit's Old City Hall, which he would fight tooth and nail to save from the wrecking ball. He was one of five men who convinced legendary Mayor Hazen S. Pingree to run.

He was a bit of a goody-two-shoes. In 1914, he was local chairman for the national “Go to Church on Sunday” campaign. He recalled in his autobiography that he was shocked by how much double-action there was in the political machine. He was clean. He was honest. And he loved Detroit and almost unfailingly tried to do everything that was in the city’s best interest.

In the 1927 election, Lodge ran against incumbent Mayor John W. Smith, another popular, honest, all-around good guy. Smith replied to his friendly challenger: Lodge took on Smith — not because he hated the guy or anything, but because they disagreed over constructing the Ambassador Bridge. Lodge knew that it would be an economic boon for Detroit and supported the plan; Smith didn’t like the idea of a privately owned bridge and opposed it.

"Old-timers will tell you that Councilman Lodge is that unique figure in political life who never announced his candidacy or asked people to vote for him," the Free Press continued. "The people ask him to run, and he consents. He does not make public appearances or political speeches. He displays no banners or posters and he passes out no cards with his picture on them."

Unlike many of the city's worst mayors, Lodge was never interested in the mere making of money. He lived and died a poor man. He dedicated his entire life to making Detroit a better place.

Lodge died of pneumonia on Feb. 6, 1950, at age 88. He is buried on a knoll at Elmwood Cemetery, overlooking the city he loved and served for more than half a century.

"Few governmental communities have been as fortunate as Detroit has been in possessing anything like the continuity of Lodge's experience and integrity," the Free Press Editorial Board wrote in 1948. "As long as character, personality and deep devotion to the public interest exist, the influence of John C. Lodge as the conscience of Detroit will never wane."

Interesting side note: Lodge never learned to drive, but he did fly in an airplane once, with his great nephew -- renowned aviator Charles Lindbergh.

4. Coleman A. Young

Mayor from Jan. 1, 1974, to Jan. 3, 1994

Now, now, hear us out on this. Young is undoubtedly one of the more controversial and divisive figures in Detroit history. There is no doubt of that. There is also no doubt, however, that he is often wrongly blamed for single-handedly destroying the city.

In fact, if you actually look at just the facts, he was actually one of the city’s best mayors. Seriously. The one greatest thing that hurt his legacy is that he didn’t bow out early enough. Had he stopped at three terms, his record would have been more impressive.

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For starters, let’s dispel the myth that Young is solely to blame for bringing Detroit to its current financial mess. While there is no doubt that he was a man of fiery rhetoric, the city’s first black mayor was actually a skilled money manager. Unlike many predecessors, Young recognized early on that Detroit was in trouble and reduced spending and department budgets and tried to curb the city’s debt. He also shrunk the city’s work force by thousands, yes, thousands, of employees.

Under Young, Detroit cut about 6,000 workers from 1978 to 1984, according to financial records reviewed by the Free Press. During his two decades as mayor, he also cut about 2,000 Police Department employees and about 500 Fire Department employees.

And all this austerity came during the national recession in the 1980s.

Showing both his political prowess as well as the trust voters had in him, Young got Detroiters to increase their income taxes from 2% to 3%. Not only that, he persuaded Republican Gov. William Milliken to sign off, too. And today, as Detroit watches protests and uproar over pension cuts and austerity measures, keep in mind that he was laying off cops and freezing wages for thousands of workers at the same time.

Compare that with the two men who preceded him -- Jerome Cavanagh and Roman Gribbs -- who did little to stop the city’s decline while population and property values plummeted, or the man who followed him -- Mayor Dennis Archer -- who hired more than 1,100 city workers in the 1990s. Not to mention the fact that Detroit had been on the skids for some two decades before Young took office. Look at the census data: Detroit’s population has been falling since the 1950s, when the freeways helped the suburbs leech population away from the city. The riot — which many people cite as “when their family gave up” and turned their backs on the city — happened seven years and two mayors before he took office.

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“Contrary to the typical portrait of him,” the Free Press wrote in his special investigation into “How Detroit Went Broke,” Young may have been Detroit’s most conservative modern mayor, attacking fiscal problems by shrinking government and forging new relationships with corporate America to build new Detroit auto factories during his tenure.”

In 1985, about halfway through Young’s 20-year tenure, the city’s debt-to-revenue ratio, when adjusted for inflation, hit an all-time low of 0.66, according to a Free Press analysis. Today, the ratio is 7.1 — more than 10 times that. In June 1986, Standard & Poor’s increased Detroit’s bond rating to investment-grade, ending a six-year stretch in which Detroit’s ability to borrow was limited.

And this isn’t even taking into account what Young did for racial equality in metro Detroit. The city's first black mayor hired African-Americans to jobs that had previously been off-limits or simply had never been held by a black person before. He dissolved STRESS, the notorious police program often associated with racial profiling.

No one will ever say he was a perfect mayor or without his mistakes and scandal. The tax increases did hurt the city. The fiery words intimidated folks. In many ways, he was just like his arch-nemesis, L. Brooks Patterson — an effective, successful leader whose mouth often grabs more headlines than his actions in office.

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It’s often easier for us to pin the blame on one person, especially when our own families that abandoned the city own some of that blame themselves. There is no question Young was divisive. But he was a darn fine mayor in his first three terms.

5. James Couzens

Mayor from 1919 to Dec. 5, 1922

Couzens was working as a clerk for the Malcolmson Coal Co. in 1903, when he met Henry Ford. His life would change forever.

Ford hired him as the first secretary of the brand-spankin’-new Ford Motor Co., and Couzens became one of the automaker's original stockholders. He invested $2,500 in the fledgling automaker. He quickly rose through the ranks until 1915, when, as a vice president and general manager at Ford, he quit over a dispute with the big boss man himself over the auto legend's political opinions and company policy. But the successful executive didn't look around for another white-collar job. After all, what automaker wouldn't want to snag a former exec from the most successful car manufacturer in town? Worth millions, he could have led a life of leisure.

Instead, Couzens went into public service. In 1916, he was appointed the city's police commissioner, a position he held until being elected mayor in 1918 and taking office the following January. And it was that year, in 1919, that he sold that early $2,500 investment to Henry and Edsel Ford for a tidy $30 million.

So Couzens was rich, but what made him one of the city's best mayors? For starters, Couzens would oversee a period of tremendous growth in the city, and saw Detroit expand to its present 138 square miles. Fighting unemployment was one of his top priorities; he warned and against slashing wages and employees, and believed that increasing the income of working people would lead to a better economy. "Is it not silly that we should spend our time discussing taking off 5 percent of somebody's salary or laying off some poor devil who is getting a couple of thousand dollars a year, and at the same time appropriating and proposing to appropriate billions of dollars to feed them in the bread lines?" Couzens said in 1933. The Republican also supported high taxes, especially on large inheritances and estates, keeping in mind that, as a millionaire many times over, he would be affected himself.

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His biggest success, however, was finally ending three decades of controversy by bringing all of Detroit’s streetcar lines under public ownership. Achieving municipal ownership had eluded seven other mayors and been a major political football for some 30 years. The Republican also waged this battle before the big push for fiscal and city-manager reforms swept the country.

He is also notable for being the first mayor under the new "strong mayor" charter of 1918. And Couzens flexed that newfound muscle. He directed the spending of some $240 million on schools, sewers and streets, ran the streetcar system that he put under city control and created a slew of city jobs to put people to work and cut the city's unemployment rate. It is said that President Herbert Hoover modeled his strategy to combat unemployment after Couzens' battle plan. His time in office was not without controversy, but it was without scandal.

He served as mayor until 1922, when he was appointed to the U.S. Senate. He was re-elected twice and serve until his death in 1936.

And all those millions he made? He was a generous giver to charities, especially for children. He established the Children's Fund of Michigan with a $12-million grant; within its first 10 years, the fund helped some 2.5 million kids in the state. In 1919, as mayor, he cut a $1.1-million check to the Michigan Hospital for Crippled Children as a Christmas present to his wife. The couple also would send orphans and underprivileged youths to camps or sending them cakes and ice cream on Couzens' birthday, a tradition his widow would continue. Couzens went on to become a U.S. senator, and in 1931, he helped Detroit weather the Depression by buying $1 million in less-than-desirable Detroit Street Railway municipal bonds – returning to the issue that helped define his term as mayor -- and gave another $1 million to help out with emergency relief. While the move came after he left office, it speaks of his character. Despite calling himself a staunch, lifelong Republican, he voted for a number of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal proposals because he believed they were the right decisions to help the nation. He voted his conscience, without any sense of party debt or duty. Something that, given the present deadlock in Congress, is hard to imagine in this day and age of politics.

Couzens died in office on Oct. 22, 1936, shortly after his 64th birthday, due to complications from uremic poisioning in his right kidney. He was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery. Interestingly, he left no will, and his estate of $31 million – some $495 million today, when adjusted for inflation – was split between his wife and four children, one of whom, Frank, was serving as mayor of Detroit himself at the time. Though keep in mind that there was a 69% tax on the amount above $20 million – something Couzens had championed during his political career – so Uncle Sam walked away with some $320 million in today's dollars.

Parts of the Lodge Freeway service drive are named in James Couzens’ honor.

Dan Austin, assistant editor for opinion digital/interactive, also runs the Detroit architectural resource HistoricDetroit.org. He has written two books, "Forgotten Landmarks of Detroit" and "Lost Detroit." Contact him at daustin99@freepress.com.